Tire-tightener



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EHORY R. POWERS, OF PARADISE, CALIFORNIA.

Tl RE-TlGHTENER.

SPEIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 325,442, dated September l, 1885.

Application filed March 19, 1855. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, EMORY R. POWERS, of Paradise, in the county of Butte and State of California, have invented a new and Improved Tire-Tightener, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of my invention is to facilitate the tightening of tires.

The invention consists in the combination, with a wheel having its rim formed of sections having shoulders and arranged to break joints, of screw-spindles interposed between the shoulders of the inner sections and the outer sections, by means of which screws the ends of the outer sections can be pressed from each other and the tire tightened.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this speciiication, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a side view of a wheel of my improved construction, and with my improved tire-tightener, parts being broken out. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail sectional elevation of part of the felly, showing the tire-tightening device. Fig. 3 is a crosssectional elevation of the saine on the line x x, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a side view of the implement for working the tire-tightening device.

The rim of the Wheel is formed of a series of two sets of telly-sections, A B, the sections of each set all being of the saine shape and size. The outer edge of cach section A is curved on the radius of the wheel, and the inner edge has two concave curves, a, from the middle to the ends, the curves a gradually approaching the outer curve from one end toward the middle and from the middle toward the other end, whereby a shoulder, C, is formed at t-he middle of the section A, as shown.

The sections B each have their outer edges curved on the radius of the wheel, and their inner edges are formed of two convex curves, I), inclined from the outer curved edge from one end to the middle and from the middle to the other end, whereby thc shoulder D is formed in the middle of the section.

The rim of the wheel is constructed of the sections A B in such a manner that the inner edges are in contact-that is, the inner con- Vex edges, b, o1" the inner sections, B, are in contact with the inner concave edges, a, ot the section A, the sections being so arranged that they break joints-that is, the abutting ends of the sections A are at the middles of the sections B, and the ends of the section B are at the niiddles lof the sections A, as shown in Fig. l.

The shoulders D of the section B face the ends of the sections A, as shown. `On each shoulder D a metal plate, E, is held,into which one end of a screwspindle, F, passes, the other end of which passes through a nut, G, in the adjacent end of a section A and into an aperture or bore, H, in the end of the said section. Between the nut G and plate E a ribbed head, J, is mounted rigidly on the spindle.

Rivets Kare placed between the sections A B and between the tire L and the rim of the wheel to hold the tire in place.

On a lever, M, having a pointed curved end,`a dog, N, is pivoted. The lever is placed on the bottom of the recess or cavity in which the head J'is located, and the dog N is en gaged with the ribs of the head-J, whereby the head and the screw-spindle can be turned. By turning the spindle the ends 0f the Sections A are pressed more or less from each other, and thus the circumference of the wheel at the outer edges of the rim of the wh eel is increased and the tire is tightened.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Let-ters Patent, is

In a wheel, the combination, with the sections A, having shoulders C, and the sections B, having shoulders D, of the plates E on the shoulders D, the nuts G on the ends of the' sections A, and the screw-spindles F, provided with ribbed heads J, substantially as hercin shown and described.

EMORY lt. POWERS. Vitnesses:

WARREN SnXToN, JOHN C. GRAY. 

